Safety-paper and method of preparing the same



z. PORTIER & 0. H. W'YMAN,

J. H. MGMAHON, administrator of Z. FORTIER, deed.

SafetyPaperand MGt'hOdf'Of Preparing the Same.

No. 227,559. Patented May 11. I880.

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' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

.JAMES H. MOMAHON, (ADMINISTRATOR OF ZEPHIRIN FORTIER,) AND CHARLES H. WYMAN, OF FITOHBURG, MASSACHUSETTS.

SAFETYrPAPER AND METHOD OF PREPARING THE SAM-E.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 227,559, dated May 11, 1880.

Application filed November 29, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that ZEPHIRIN FORTIER, deceased, formerly of Fitchburg, county of Worcester, and State of Massachusetts, (but a citizen of Canada,) and CHAS. H. WYMAN, of said Fitchburg, Worcester county, Massachusetts, did invent an Improvement in Safety-Paper and Method of Preparing the Same, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to an improved safetypaper, and to the method of preparing paper, parchment, and other material to be written upon so that when written or printed upon the said writing or printing cannot be removed or taken out withoutdestroying the paper.

The invention consists in a paper or parchment coated or impregnated with a solution of tannin dissolved in alcohol or ether; also, in the herein-described method of rendering writing or printing on paper or parchment indelible, it consisting in subjecting the same to the action of a solution of alcohol and tannin.

In the drawing, a represents a piece of our improved safety-paper.

In the practice of this invention it has been demonstrated by numerous experiments that the solution for treating the paper can be best produced by dissolving one pound of tannin in about one gallon of alcohol; but it is possible to use ether instead of alcohol, but not to so good an efiect, because of its great volatility.

This solution is applied to any usual writing-paper or material, such'as parchment, and upon one or both sides, by means of a brush or in any other suitable manner, and assimilates and combines with the paper, and in a measure tans it, changing its structure, so that subsequent washing or soaking or the application of alkalies will not restore the paper or parchment to its original condition and obliterate the ink.

0n ink being applied to paper or parchment so prepared it is quickly absorbed, and the iron or other mineral matter in the ink precipitates, and entering into the paper forms a tannite of iron or other metal tannite, which at once becomes indelible, and cannot be removed except by destroying the paper.

Ink or printing on paper so prepared will not fade by exposure to light or by age, and cannot be removed by any known acid or solution which will not also destroy the paper.

What is claimed is- 1, As an improved article of manufacture, a safety-paper treated with a solution of tannin dissolved in alcohol or ether, substantially as described.

2. That improvement in the method of making written documents on paper or parchment indelible which consists in subjecting the paper to an alcoholic solution of tannin with which the ink combines, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of 'two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES H. MOMAHON, Administrator of the estate of Zephtrtn Fortier.

CHAS. H. WYMAN. Witnesses to the signature of James H. McMahon:

HENRY A. WILLIS, F. A. CURRIER. Witnesses to the signature of Chas. H. Wy

man:

G. W. GREGORY, N. E WHITNEY. 

